Citizen ArchitectCitizen Architect

In 1993, late architect Samuel Mockbee founded Auburn University's Rural Studio, an education program in which architecture students leave the university setting to live and work in rural Hale County, Alabama. In one of the poorest parts of America, a community in which 1 in 4 citizens live in poverty, students use donated and recycled materials to build homes and community facilities. The film presents the story of students' experiences during a typical year in one of the most prolific and inspirational design-build outreach programs ever established, including historical interviews with Mockbee. Infusing the film with a larger discussion of architecture's role in addressing issues of poverty, class, race, education, social change, and citizenship are other architects and designers who share praise and criticism of the Rural Studio.